Team
Seasoned professionals applying their experience for your success.
Michael I. Connolly
Founder and CEO – Atlas
Michael’s passion is to help companies build value. Today, his firm, Atlas Digital Partners, serves clients by offering the following solutions: Venture Development, Corporate Revitalization, SaaS software development, Sales Enablement and select Strategic Advisory Services.
Michael is the Co Founder of Silicon Y’All – the premier event in the Southeast for SaaS and Internet CEOs. He’s inspired by SaaS leaders and recently revitalized Varsgen – a SaaS company - that helps online merchants detect and protect online credit card fraud.
Michael has led, founded and exited several digital media companies; including the sale of ElderCarelink to QuinStreet. He started his career with a leading global consulting firm McKinsey and Company where he assisted Global Fortune 500 companies with profit improvement initiatives. He later served as Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development for American Express, where he incubated a number of key business development projects; such as American Express Tax and Business Services. Michael has led revitalizations efforts for both private and public clients such as Insignia Systems and Trammell Crow.
Michael’s diverse digital and traditional experience makes him a valuable advisor to senior leaders. He has held several CEO leadership roles in Internet media, multi-unit franchising, financial services and healthcare industries (Great Clips, Jamba Juice, BuyerZone, ElderLife Financial Services and MarketBridge.) He is often engaged to coach business leaders to be more effective by guiding them through emotional intelligence exercises.
Michael earned a Bachelor of Arts from Pomona College in History and a Masters of Business Administration with second year honors from Harvard Business School. Michael is the Executive In Residence at Birmingham-Southern College.
PARTNERS
Will Wright
Entrepreneur In Residence at Economic Development Partnership of Alabama
Will Wright has founded or been part of the early team for 2 start ups focused on driving better outcomes in healthcare (Digital Health Coaching company Pack Health and physician management company Vascular Management Associates). He has also had a range of high impact engagements as a consultant with McKinsey & Company and Health Benchmarks (now part of IMS Health). With expertise in building products, business development, consumer behavior, patient engagement and measuring healthcare value, he provides a range of advice to clients seeking to grow solutions to the problem of healthcare value.
Cecil Bostany
Technology & Life Sciences Practice Leader at Warren Averett LLC
Cecil G. Bostany, CPA joined Warren Averett as a Member in the Tax Division in 2002. He is a former partner with an international accounting firm and has over 39 years of experience working with privately owned, venture-backed and publicly-held companies. Cecil is the leader of Warren Averett’s Life Sciences & Technology Practice Group and also a Co-Leader in Warren Averett’s Transaction Advisory Services Group. Cecil is taxation planning specialist with extensive experience in mergers & acquisitions, buy and sell side due-diligence, transaction structuring and financing. Cecil serves a variety of clients related to technology & life sciences, venture & private equity backed, manufacturing, restaurant and automotive. Cecil and his wife have three sons and reside in Birmingham.
Shiv Narayanan
President, How To SaaS
Shiv Narayanan is the Founder and CEO of How To SaaS, a management consulting firm that works with leading private equity firms to help their portfolio companies scale marketing impact on business results.
ADVISORY BOARD
Experience. Wisdom. Trusted Advisors
DAVID SILVER
David is a serial digital media entrepreneur and experienced angel investor having co-founded MedTrackAlert, an online health information company that he sold in 2008 to The Health Central Network. He is also the Co Founder of Athena East, an online publishing and social media services company. In his current capacity as Managing Partner of Athena East he is responsible for leading all business development, product development and strategy engagement offerings. Prior to Athena East, David was responsible for financing and business development at TechRepublic that was sold to Gartner Group that subsequently sold it to CNET Networks. Prior to TechRepublic, David was an investment-banking analyst in the Corporate Finance Department at FAC/Equities. David is currently CEO of Choice Medical.
ZANE TARENCE
Zane Tarence, Managing Director of Founders Investment Banking’s Internet and Digital Media Practice, is an experienced investment banker, entrepreneur and recognized expert on the growth and monetization of digital media, internet technology and software companies. Over the past 15 years, Zane has led and completed more than 75 technology deals, including facilitating one of the largest sales of a single-person blog in the world.Zane has more than 24 years of experience as an operator, investor and deal maker in the technology arena, and he independently and successfully created and sold two technology businesses to publicly-traded companies. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Zane worked at IBM.
JAMIE HUTCHINSON
Jamie Hutchinson is a partner in Goodwin Proctor’s Business Law Department and a member its Private Equity and Technology Companies Groups. Mr. Hutchinson also serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. He practices in the areas of corporate, securities and private equity transactional law, primarily on behalf of private investment funds and their portfolio companies. Mr. Hutchinson is a key contributor to the Goodwin Procter Founder’s Workbench, an online resource for start-ups, emerging companies and the entrepreneurial community. He joined Goodwin Procter in 2006.
TIM FUREY
Tim Furey is the Founder and CEO of MarketBridge. Under his leadership, MarketBridge has become a leading provider of technology-enabled B2B marketing and sales performance improvement solutions and services. Mr. Furey led the transformative expansion of MarketBridge from thought-leading, multi-channel consulting firm to a leading provider of end-to-end digital marketing and sales enablement solutions. MarketBridge clients include leading firms in industries such as software (Microsoft, SAP, salesforce.com), hardware (HP, Dell, NetApp), communications (British Telecom, Verizon, Avaya), financial services (Mastercard, HSBC, American Express), and health care (GE, Merck, Humana). Tim serves on the Board of Directors of Skyworks Solutions (Nasdaq:SWKS), a leading semiconductor manufacturer of wireless telephony applications. Tim earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics, cum laude, from Harvard University and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
DOUG LENNICK
Doug Lennick is CEO and co-founder of think2perform. He is legendary for his innovative approaches to developing high performance in individuals and organizations and is an expert at developing practical applications of the art and science of human behavior, financial and otherwise.Before founding think2perform, Doug, a certified financial planner (CFP), was Executive Vice President – Advice and Retail Distribution for American Express Financial Advisors (now Ameriprise Financial). In that capacity he led an organization of 17,000 field and corporate associates to unprecedented success.